Robert Page Arnot

Robert "Robin" Page Arnot, (1890–1986), best known as R. Page Arnot, was a British Communist journalist and politician.

Contents

Biography

Early years

Robert Page Arnot, known to his friends as "Robin", was born on 15 December 1890 at Greenock, the son of a newspaper editor. He attended Glasgow University where he helped to form the University Socialist Federation in 1912, along with G.D.H. Cole and others. He also wrote for the Labour Leader, publication of the Independent Labour Party, using the pseudonym "Jack Cade."[1]

In 1912, the Fabian socialist Beatrice Webb established a Committee of Enquiry into the future control of industry. Out of this sprung the Fabian Research Department, which later evolved into the Labour Research Department. One of the volunteers attracted by the project was Robin Page Arnot, who became its full-time head in 1914 — a position which he retained until 1926.[2]

In 1916, Arnot was drafted into the British military, but he refused induction and was imprisoned for two years as a conscientious objector. When he was freed in 1918, he returned to his post as the Secretary of the Labour Research Department. In 1919, in response to labour unrest in the coal mines, the British government established a Committee of Inquiry. The Miners' Federation sought the aid of the Labour Research Department in marshaling evidence on behalf of the workers' demand for higher wages, shorter hours, and government ownership of the mines.

Political career

R. Page Arnot was a foundation member of the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1920. Coming as he did from a background as a guild socialist, Arnot favored close integration of the Communist Party with the broader labor movement, including affiliation as a member organization under the Labour Party's umbrella.[3]

Arnot was a co-founder, along with R. Palme Dutt and W.N. Ewer of the Labour Monthly, and was a regular contributor and assistant editor for that journal throughout its long history.

In 1925, Arnot was among the 12 Communists arrested under the Incitement to Mutiny Act of 1797. He was found guilty and jailed for six months, to be released on the eve of the 1926 General Strike. During the General Strike he helped to form the Northumberland and Durham Joint Strike Committee. After the failure of the strike, Arnot returned to the Labour Research Department as its Director of Research and wrote a book on the general strike.[4]

R. Page Arnot was a fixture on the governing Central Committee of the CPGB. He was elected to the Central Committee by the party's 9th Congress in 1927, and returned by the 10th Congress of January 1929, the 11th Congress of December 1929, the 12th Congress of 1932, the 13th Congress of 1935, and the 14th Congress of 1937. He was not among the 24 members elected by the 15th Congress of 1938, however.[5]

Arnot was elected as a delegate to the 6th World Congress of the Communist International, held in Moscow in 1928.

Arnot was a prolific pamphleteer and author and wrote a six volume history of the British mineworkers from 1949 to 1975.

Death

Arnot died in 1986 at the age of 96.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Graham Stevenson, "Robin Page Arnot", Communist Biographies. Retrieved 29 Aug. 2009.
  2. ^ Graham Stevenson, "Robin Page Arnot", Communist Biographies. Retrieved 29 Aug. 2009.
  3. ^ Graham Stevenson, "Robin Page Arnot", Communist Biographies. Retrieved 29 Aug. 2009.
  4. ^ Graham Stevenson, "Robin Page Arnot", Communist Biographies. Retrieved 29 Aug. 2009.
  5. ^ Noreen Branson, The Communist Party of Great Britain, 1927-1941. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1985.

Publications by R. Page Arnot

External links